Psychosomatic diagnosis system

ABSTRACT

A psychosomatic diagnosis system in which evaluation of the psychosomatic condition of a person to be diagnosed is performed automatically and objectively, based on the response by voice with respect to a question and the like asked to the person to be diagnosed. The system includes an index database, a speech processing section for obtaining voice as a speech signal, an analog to digital conversion section for converting the speech signal into a digital speech signal, a data processing section for calculating a human strange attractor by using the chaos theory and storing the human strange attractor in the index database, an attractor evaluation section for performing a quantitative evaluation by using the calculated human strange attractor, and a display section for displaying the evaluation result.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a psychosomatic diagnosis system fordiagnosing mind and body of a human being automatically and objectively.More specifically, the present invention relates to a psychosomaticdiagnosis system in which evaluation of the psychosomatic condition of aperson to be diagnosed is performed automatically and objectively, basedon a verbal response with respect to questions and the like asked to theperson to be diagnosed.

BACKGROUND ART

Conventionally, when the psychosomatic condition of a person to bediagnosed (hereinafter, referred to as a “subject”) is evaluated,physiological conditions such as blood pressure, pulse, perspiration,reaction of the pupil and the like, and carbon dioxide concentration inexpiration are measured. A person who gives diagnosis (hereinafter,referred to as a “diagnosing person”) with respect to the subject asksappropriate detailed questions about the condition of the subject, basedon the measurement results, and understands these based on hisexperience and knowledge, to evaluate the psychosomatic condition of thesubject.

When the mind and body condition of the subject is evaluated, it isnecessary to measure the physiological condition of the subject.However, at the time of measurement of the physiological condition, itis necessary to bring sensors required for the measurement into contactwith the body of the subject or attach the sensors to the subject.Hence, the measurement is not handy, and also gives stress to thesubject, thereby decreasing the reliability of the measurement resultitself.

In order to prevent a decrease in the reliability, Japanese Patent No.3151489 discloses apparatus for diagnosing tiredness or doziness of thesubject by voice. In this invention, a change in the physiologicalcondition (for example, the fatigue degree or doze) of the subject iscaptured by measurement of the obtained voice with the lapse of time.

In other words, in this invention, voice is obtained by the apparatusfor detecting the fatigue degree or doze, and a Lyapunov index iscalculated from the voice and compared with a Lyapunov index of the pastcondition such as tiredness or doziness of the subject, to therebyobtain the physiological condition of the subject.

However, when the objective evaluation with respect to the psychosomaticcondition is calculated, the response of the subject with respect toquestions and the like from the diagnosing person (that is, the voiceuttered by the subject with respect to the questions and the like)becomes one of the important factors. However, it cannot be obtained inthis invention. Moreover, the questions and the like asked to thesubject should be appropriate corresponding to the subject, but it isnot applicable to this invention. In other words, if the same thing isto be performed as in the present invention by using this invention, thediagnosing person should have sufficient experience, consider and askappropriate questions based on the experience by himself.

The psychosomatic condition of the subject can be evaluated moreaccurately, not by simply asking questions and the like to the subjectby the diagnosing person in an interview as before, but by giving thesubject the false impression that he/she is under some circumstances, tointentionally put the subject in circumstances (for example, relaxedsituation, or situation under tension or stress) desired by thediagnosing person and observing the reaction of the subject (voice ofthe subject with respect to the questions). But it is also notapplicable to this invention. That is, the diagnosing person cannotcontrol the situation of the subject.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above situation, the present inventor has invented apsychosomatic diagnosis system that makes it possible to eliminatesubjectivity of the diagnosing person and to objectively determine thepsychosomatic condition of the subject by utterance with respect toquestions and the like. Appropriate questions are provided based on theinformation of the subject stored in advance, and as a result, thediagnosing person does not have to have abundant experiences as before.

In the present invention, not only the voice of the subject with respectto the questions and the like by the diagnosing person is obtained, butalso it is possible to put the subject in the situation desired by thediagnosing person (that is, to give the subject a virtual sense ofreality to intentionally change the situation of the subject). As aresult, the psychosomatic condition of the subject can be evaluated moreaccurately than the simple evaluation based on the voice.

The invention according to claim 1 is a psychosomatic diagnosis systemfor diagnosing the psychosomatic condition by voice uttered by a personto be diagnosed psychosomatically with respect to questions and thelike, comprising: index database in which evaluation results andinformation for identifying the person to be diagnosed are stored inassociation with each other; a speech processing section that obtainsvoice uttered by the person to be diagnosed with respect to thequestions and the like as a speech signal; an analog to digitalconversion section that converts the speech signal to a digital speechsignal by digitization; a data processing section that calculates ahuman strange attractor from the digital speech signal by using thechaos theory, and stores the calculated human strange attractor in theindex database; an attractor evaluation section that performsquantitative evaluation based on the calculated human strange attractorand the past human strange attractor of the person to be diagnosed oranother person to be diagnosed stored in the index database; and adisplay section that displays the evaluation result.

Objective diagnosis can be provided by obtaining voice uttered by thesubject (the subject (the person to be diagnosed psychosomatically)includes a person who is diagnosed unconsciously (for example, theperson's voice is observed from another room and diagnosed) as well as aperson who is diagnosed consciously) with respect to the questions andthe like asked by the diagnosing person, and analyzing the voiceaccording to the chaos theory. Further, since the diagnosis is providedfrom the voice, it is not necessary to attach sensors to the subject,and hence the reliability of the diagnosis is improved without givingexcessive stress to the subject.

At this time, the human strange attractor, which becomes the basis fordiagnosis, is calculated by electronically processing the speech signalissued from the subject according to a predetermined procedure, to givequantitative evaluation using the calculation result. Therefore, theprocess leaves no room for subjectivity, and eliminates conventionaljudgment relying on the experience and subjectivity such as the sense ofthe diagnosing person, thereby providing objective evaluation result.The human strange attractor refers to phase space mapping informationand an index such as the Lyapunov index.

Questions here are not limited to medical questions, and includenon-medical questions and interviews, and also include a case where thediagnosing person directly asks questions to the subject, and a casewhere the psychosomatic diagnosis system according to the presentinvention provides the same feeling and interpretation as those obtainedwhen the diagnosing person asks questions to the subject, through thesense of sight, sense of hearing, and sense of touch (for example, whena virtual sense of reality is provided by using a display of sentences,images, or projections having a relation with the questions provided tothe subject by the diagnosing person, by which the content of thequestion can be imaged, or human voice, environmental noise, oreffective sound).

In the present invention, the psychosomatic condition refers to apsychosomatic condition such as getting excited easily, including theperson's natural character, potential character, character obtained byexperience, occasional excited state, or diagnosis of manic-depressive,condition of losing self-confidence or likely losing self-confidence,the inner workings of a human mind to tell a lie or be going to tell alie, or more simply, a tired state or an absent-minded state of beingabsorbed in other things.

An invention according to claim 2 is a psychosomatic diagnosis systemcomprising: subject database for storing information of the person to bediagnosed; and a question supply section that supplies at least onequestion to a diagnosing person, based on the information of the personto be diagnosed stored in the subject database.

In the present invention, when the diagnosing person diagnoses thesubject, questions and the like are provided based on the subject'sinformation. As a result, the diagnosing person does not requireexperience, and even a person who does not have abundant experiences (orautomatically) can easily diagnose the mind and body of the subject.

An invention according to claim 3 is a psychosomatic diagnosis systemhaving a visual simulation display section that gives an effect ofvisual simulation and/or an aural simulation speaker section that givesan effect of aural simulation and/or a tactile simulation operationsection that gives an effect of tactile simulation, with respect to theperson to be diagnosed.

A delicate change occurs in the subject, when the subject understandsthat he/she is going to be diagnosed. Therefore, this change may givesome influence to the evaluation result, but it has been heretoforedifficult to eliminate this influence. In the present invention, bygiving an effect of simulation, which directly acts on the sense ofvision, the sense of hearing, or the sense of touch of the subject, thesubject can be placed under a relaxed situation or an optimum situationappropriate to the diagnosis purpose (situation desired by thediagnosing person), thereby enabling a more accurate evaluation.

An invention according to claim 4 is a psychosomatic diagnosis system,wherein the speech processing section has a preamplifier that performspreprocessing of the speech signal before conversion of the speechsignal into a digital speech signal in the analog to digital conversionsection, and an audio filter.

In the present invention, when the subject uses a microphone, the speechsignal is sampling-processed, thereby enabling extraction of amoreaccurate speech signal, which leads to improvement of evaluationaccuracy. The microphone may be any known device for obtaining voice,and includes a bone conduction microphone.

An invention according to claim 5 is a psychosomatic diagnosis systemfor diagnosing the psychosomatic condition by voice uttered by a personto be diagnosed psychosomatically with respect to questions and thelike, comprising: index database in which evaluation results andinformation for identifying the person to be diagnosed are stored inassociation with each other; a speech processing section that obtainsvoice of the person to be diagnosed with respect to the questions andthe like stored on a recording medium as a speech signal; an analog todigital conversion section that obtains the speech recorded on therecording medium as a speech signal, or converts the speech signalobtained in the speech processing section to a digital speech signal bydigitization; a data processing section that calculates a human strangeattractor from the digital speech signal recorded on the recordingmedium or received from the analog to digital conversion section, byusing the chaos theory, and stores the calculated human strangeattractor in the index database; an attractor evaluation section thatgives a quantitative evaluation based on the calculated human strangeattractor and the past human strange attractor of the person to bediagnosed or another person to be diagnosed stored in the indexdatabase; and a display section that displays the evaluation result.

The response to the questions provided by the diagnosing person isstored on the recording medium, and the speech signal is electronicallyprocessed according to a predetermined procedure based on the voicerecorded on the recording medium, thereby to calculate a human strangeattractor, which becomes the basis for diagnosis, and to provide aquantitative evaluation using the calculation result. Therefore, theprocess leaves no room for subjectivity of the diagnosing person, andeliminates conventional judgment relying on the experience andsubjectivity such as the sense of the diagnosing person, therebyproviding objective evaluation result.

Moreover, evaluation of the subject becomes possible by using voicerecorded on a recording medium such as a tape recorder or an IC memoryin advance, not by receiving a speech input from the microphone or thelike. As a result, ex-post evaluation of the subject becomes possible,and for example, when the schedules of the subject and the diagnosingperson do not agree, the response of the subject with respect to thequestions provided in advance by a person other than the diagnosingperson is recorded on a recording medium, and the diagnosing person canmake judgment later, based on the recorded voice.

An invention according to claim 6 is a psychosomatic diagnosis systemfor diagnosing the psychosomatic condition by voice uttered by a personto be diagnosed psychosomatically with respect to questions and thelike, comprising: index database in which evaluation results andinformation for identifying the person to be diagnosed are stored inassociation with each other; a speech processing section that obtainsvoice of the person to be diagnosed with respect to the questions andthe like as a speech signal via a network; an analog to digitalconversion section that converts the speech signal to a digital speechsignal by digitization; a data processing section that calculates ahuman strange attractor from the digital speech signal by using thechaos theory, and stores the calculated human strange attractor in theindex database; an attractor evaluation section that gives aquantitative evaluation based on the calculated human strange attractorand the past human strange attractor of the person to be diagnosed oranother person to be diagnosed stored in the index database; and adisplay section that displays the evaluation result. When the speechsignal is an analog speech signal, the speech signal is received by thespeech processing section or the analog to digital conversion section,and when the speech signal is a digital speech signal, the digitalspeech signal is received by the data processing section.

According to the present invention, the psychosomatic diagnosis systemenables transfer of voice via the network with a subject who lives in aremote area, by using a telephone, a computer or the like. As a result,the subject does not have to go to a place where the psychosomaticdiagnosis system is installed, and can use the psychosomatic diagnosissystem without traveling.

When a telephone line or the like is used as the network, since thespeech signal is an analog signal, the analog signal is digitized toenable digital processing thereafter. When the Internet or the like isused as the network, since the speech signal is a digital signal,useless process can be omitted by calculating the human strangeattractor directly from the signal, thereby enabling high-speedprocessing.

An invention according to claim 7 is a psychosomatic diagnosis systemfor diagnosing the psychosomatic condition by voice uttered by a personto be diagnosed psychosomatically with respect to questions and thelike, comprising: index database in which evaluation results andinformation for identifying the person to be diagnosed are stored inassociation with each other; a processing function distribution sectionthat transmits to a subject's terminal held by the person to bediagnosed a speech processing section for obtaining the voice of theperson to be diagnosed as a speech signal, an analog to digitalconversion section for converting the speech signal to a digital speechsignal by digitization, a questioning section for providing thequestions and the like to the person to be diagnosed, a data processingsection for calculating a human strange attractor from the digitalspeech signal by using the chaos theory, and transmitting thecalculation result to the psychosomatic diagnosis system, and a displaysection for receiving and displaying the questions and the evaluation inthe attractor evaluation section; an attractor evaluation section thatstores the human strange attractor calculated on the subject's terminalin the index database and gives a quantitative evaluation based on thecalculated human strange attractor and the past human strange attractorof the person to be diagnosed or another person to be diagnosed storedin the index database; and a data reception and distribution sectionthat transmits the questions and the like in the question supply sectionto the subject's terminal, receives the calculation result from thesubject's terminal, and transmits the evaluation result obtained in theattractor evaluation section to the subject's terminal.

According to the present invention, the processing functions can bedistributed by using a browser or the like used for the Internet, whichhas become widespread recently. In other words, processing from thespeech processing to the calculation of the human strange attractor isperformed by the subject's terminal, and only the result thereof isreceived by the psychosomatic diagnosis system, to evaluate it. As aresult, load distribution becomes possible, thereby enabling high-speedprocessing.

Further, when the subject is to be diagnosed, optimum question can beprovided to the subject, while eliminating the subjectivity of thediagnosing person, by providing the questions and the like from thesystem. Furthermore, by automatically providing questions based on theinformation relating to the subject and evaluating the response based onthe past statistics of the psychosomatic diagnosis system, thediagnosing person himself is not always necessary, and the subject alonecan obtain and read the result.

An invention according to claim 8 is a psychosomatic diagnosis systemcomprising subject database for storing the information relating to theperson to be diagnosed, and a question supply section that supplies atleast one question to the diagnosing person, based on the information ofthe person to be diagnosed, stored in the subject database.

According to the present invention, since questions and the like aresupplied based on the information of the subject, the diagnosing persondoes not require experience, and even a person who does not haveabundant experiences (or automatically) can easily diagnose the mind andbody of the subject.

In the inventions according to claims 1 to 8, the diagnosing person canbasically give diagnosis without contacting with the subject, therebyenabling a highly reliable and simple psychosomatic diagnosis system,without providing a stress due to the diagnosis with respect to thesubject.

Particularly, diagnosis can be automatically provided from the subject'svoice obtained by a general microphone, and the subject's psychosomaticcondition can be properly and easily evaluated by any user of thesystem, without requiring high level skills with respect to theoperation of the psychosomatic diagnosis system itself or experience ofanalysis or the like of the mental status. As a result, the subject canevaluate the psychosomatic condition without requiring a diagnosingperson, who is a specialist.

Furthermore, since diagnosis from the voice becomes possible, diagnosisfrom voice transmitted through a phone or a network such as Internet,and voice recorded by a tape recorder or the like becomes also possible,thereby enabling correspondence in a wide range of operation mode.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram indicating one example of the systemconfiguration according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system block diagram indicating one example of the systemconfiguration of a calculation processing section in the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a system block diagram indicating one example of the systemconfiguration of speech input using a microphone or the like.

FIG. 4 is a system block diagram indicating one example of the systemconfiguration of speech input using a recording medium.

FIG. 5 is a system block diagram indicating one example of the systemconfiguration of speech input via a network.

FIG. 6 is a system block diagram indicating one example of the systemconfiguration in which a virtual sense of reality is provided to asubject to perform speech input.

FIG. 7 is a system block diagram indicating one example of the systemconfiguration when the functions are distributed.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

One example of the embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed in detail, with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a systemblock diagram indicating one example of the system configurationaccording to the present invention. A psychosomatic diagnosis system 1has a calculation processing section 2, a question supply section 3,index database 4, and subject database 5, and can transfer data (speechsignal, evaluation data and the like) between the psychosomaticdiagnosis system 1 and a subject's terminal 6 by which the subjectinputs voice.

The network 7 may be any of a telephone network, an open network such asInternet, and a closed network such as LAN, and may be wired orwireless.

The subject's terminal 6 refers to a terminal by which the subjectinputs voice, and may be a microphone, a phone, a mobile phone, apersonal handy phone, a PDA, or a personal computer.

The calculation processing section 2 is a unit which performs analysisaccording to the chaos theory based on the input voice, to calculate ahuman strange attractor (phase space mapping information and an indexsuch an Lyapunov index). The calculation processing section 2 has aspeech processing section 8, an analog to digital conversion section 9,a data processing section 10, an attractor evaluation section 11, and adisplay section 12. FIG. 2 illustrates a system block diagram, being oneexample of the system configuration of the calculation processingsection 2. In the data processing section 10 and the attractorevaluation section 11, processing by hardware or processing by softwaremay be performed.

The speech processing section 8 is a unit which performs properadjustment of the sampling period and adjustment of a signalamplification level with respect to the speech signal input fromhardware capable of reproducing and outputting speech, such as thesubject's terminal 6, a magnetic tape recorder, and a magnetic disk.

The analog to digital conversion section 9 is a unit which converts ananalog speech signal sampled by the speech processing section 8 into adigital speech signal.

The data processing section 10 is a unit which analyzes time series datain the digital speech signal based on a known method according to thechaos theory to calculate a human strange attractor.

The attractor evaluation section 11 is a unit which performs knownquantitative evaluation such as change detection or statisticalanalysis, by using the human strange attractor calculated in the dataprocessing section 10, and the past human strange attractor of thesubject or another subject, stored in the index database 4 (describedlater).

The display section 12 is a unit which displays the result of evaluationperformed in the attractor evaluation section 11 by using a numericalvalue, a graph or the like, so that the diagnosing person (or thesubject according to circumstances) can read the evaluation result.

The question supply section 3 is a unit which selects a question and thelike to be provided to the subject from the diagnosing person, based onthe information relating to the subject stored in the subject database5. In this case, the diagnosing person may select a question from thequestion list, or an optimum question may be automatically selectedbased on the information relating to the subject.

The index database 4 is database for storing the human strange attractorcalculated in the calculation processing section 2 in association withthe information for identifying the subject (hereinafter referred to as“subject discrimination code”).

The subject database 5 is database for storing the subject'sinformation, for example, living environment, worries, the presentsituation, hobbies and preferences.

One example of the process flow according to the present invention willbe described in detail. At first, one example of the process flow isshown, in which the subject's terminal 6 is a microphone or a boneconduction microphone, and is directly connected to the psychosomaticdiagnosis system 1, and the subject inputs the response with respect tothe questions from the diagnosing person by voice. The conceptualdiagram of the system configuration of the psychosomatic diagnosissystem 1 in this case is shown in FIG. 3.

The diagnosing person reads the information of the subject stored in thesubject database 5 via the question supply section 3, and selects aquestion or the like from the question supply section 3 (or the questionsupply section 3 automatically selects a question or the like based onthe information relating to the subject stored in the subject database5), to ask the question to the subject. When the subject himself utterswords, this process is not always necessary.

From the response by voice with respect to the question by thediagnosing person, the voice is input via the microphone or the boneconduction microphone in the subject's terminal 6 to become a speechsignal. The input speech signal is input from the subject's terminal 6to an audio filter 14 via a preamplifier 13, subjected to properadjustment of sampling period and adjustment of the signal amplificationlevel, and input to the analog to digital conversion section 9.

The analog to digital conversion section 9 converts the speech signalsampled by the speech processing section 8 into a digital speech signal,and inputs the digital speech signal to the data processing section 10.The data processing section 10 having received the digital speech signalanalyzes the time series data in the digital speech signal by using theknown method according to the chaos theory, to calculate the humanstrange attractor. The data processing section 10 stores the calculatedhuman strange attractor together with the subject discrimination code inthe index database 4.

After the human strange attractor is calculated in the data processingsection 10, the attractor evaluation section 11 extracts the past humanstrange attractor of the subject and/or another subject stored in theindex database 4, and the extracted human strange attractor and thecalculated human strange attractor are used to perform quantitativeevaluation such as change detection and statistical analysis, anddisplays the result to the diagnosing person (the subject according tocircumstances), by using a numerical value, a graph or the like. Thediagnosing person (the subject according to circumstances) can readthis, to understand the evaluation of the objective psychosomaticcondition of the subject.

One example of the process flow when the response by voice of thesubject with respect to the question provided by the diagnosing personis recorded on a recording medium 15 such as a magnetic tape, a magneticdisk or an IC memory, and a speech signal is input from the recordingmedium 15 to the speech processing section 8 will be described next. Theconceptual diagram of the system configuration of the psychosomaticdiagnosis system 1 in this case is shown in FIG. 4.

The recording method on the recording medium 15 includes a case in whichthe speech signal is input as an analog signal, and a case in which thespeech signal is input as a digital signal. When the speech signal is ananalog signal (for example, when speech is recorded on a tape recorder),the speech signal is input to the speech processing section 8 or theanalog to digital conversion section 9, to convert the analog signalinto a digital speech signal.

On the other hand, when the speech signal is a digital speech signal onthe recording medium 15 (for example, when speech is recorded on an ICmemory), or after the analog signal is converted into a digital speechsignal in the analog to digital conversion section 9, the digital speechsignal is input to the data processing section 10. The processthereafter is the same as in the first example, thereby enablingunderstanding of the evaluation of the objective psychosomatic conditionof the subject.

Next, explanation is given to a case where the psychosomatic diagnosissystem 1 transfers the speech signal between the subject's terminal 6and the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1 via the network 7, to evaluatethe objective psychosomatic condition of the subject. The conceptualdiagram of the system configuration of the psychosomatic diagnosissystem 1 in this case is shown in FIG. 5.

When the subject's terminal 6 transmits an analog signal, for examplefrom a phone, to the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1 as a speechsignal, the subject speaks via the phone or the like, so that the speechsignal, being the analog signal, is transmitted from the subject'sterminal 6 to the speech processing section 8. The speech processingsection 8 receives the analog signal, and the analog signal is inputfrom the preamplifier 13 to the audio filter 14, subjected to properadjustment of sampling period and adjustment of the signal amplificationlevel, and input to the analog to digital conversion section 9.

The analog to digital conversion section 9 converts the speech signalsampled by the speech processing section 8 into a digital speech signal,and inputs the digital speech signal to the data processing section 10.

On the other hand, when the speech signal is a digital speech signalthrough an interface between computers transmitted via the Internet orthe like, the digital speech signal is directly input from the subject'sterminal 6 to the data processing section 10. The processing thereafteris the same as in the first embodiment, thereby enabling understandingof the evaluation of the objective psychosomatic condition of thesubject.

This embodiment indicates a case where a function of providing adiagnosis environment closer to the actual environment with respect tothe subject is added to the system configuration in Example 1, andexplanation is given to an example of the psychosomatic diagnosis system1, in which a visual simulation display section 16 is connected to anaural simulation speaker section 17 and a tactile simulation operationsection 18, to provide the subject relaxed or optimum virtual sense ofreality according to the diagnosis purpose. One example of the systemconfiguration of the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1 in this case isshown in FIG. 6. The visual simulation display section 16 indicates afunction of allowing a display 19 for displaying a stereoscopic image orthe like to display the stereoscopic image, the aural simulation speakersection 17 indicates a function of allowing a speaker 20 which canoutput voice in the three-dimensional space to output the voice in thethree-dimensional space, and the tactile simulation operation section 18indicates a function of controlling a data glove 21 which gives feelingof touch, weight and the like with respect to the subject, to give senseof touch to the subject.

The diagnosing person extracts information of the subject in the subjectdatabase 5 via the question supply section 3, and provides the subjectvisual, aural, and tactile effects such that the subject can obtain arelaxed visual sense of reality, from the display 19, the speaker 20,and the data glove 21, via the visual simulation display section 16, theaural simulation speaker section 17, and the tactile simulationoperation section 18. For example, when the subject likes hiking, thevisual simulation display section 16 shows three-dimensional vision inthe forest to the subject as a visual effect via the display 19, theaural simulation speaker section 17 generates three-dimensional soundsuch as a birdsong and waving sound of trees in the wind as an auraleffect, and the tactile simulation operation section 18 provides a senseof touch of trees with respect to the subject via the data glove 21,thereby to give a sensation that the subject is in the forest, and avirtual sense of reality with respect to the subject.

Under such environment, the diagnosing person reads the subject'sinformation stored in the subject database 5 via the question supplysection 3, and selects a question or the like from the question supplysection 3 (or the question supply section 3 automatically selects aquestion or the like based on the information relating to the subjectstored in the subject database 5), to ask the question to the subject.

As a result, the environment of the subject can be controlled from pointto point according to the situation of the subject, so that the subjectcan be placed under various environments, thereby enabling understandingof accurate reaction of the subject.

The subject answers the question from the diagnosing person, and thevoice becomes a speech signal via the microphone or the bone conductionmicrophone in the speech processing section 8. The process flowthereafter is the same as in the first embodiment, and hence theexplanation thereof is omitted. As a result, the evaluation of theobjective psychosomatic condition of the subject under the environmentcorresponding to the diagnosis purpose can be comprehended.

One example of a process flow when the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1is not performed on one terminal, but the functions thereof aredistributed will be described below. One example of the systemconfiguration of the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1 in this case isshown in FIG. 7. In this case, a computer having a browser and the like,a mobile phone, a personal handy phone, a PDA or the like is preferableas the subject's terminal 6.

The psychosomatic diagnosis system 1 has a processing functiondistribution section 22, an attractor evaluation section 11, a datareception and distribution section 23, the question supply section 3,the index database 4, and the subject database 5, and is capable oftransfer of data between the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1 and thesubject's terminal 6 via the network 7. Needless to say, the subject'sterminal 6 is capable of operating the application software such asapplet on the browser, and equipped with a microphone or the like. Inthis embodiment, an example in which various functions are handled bysoftware by using the applet will be described, but needless to say,other methods may be used.

The processing function distribution section 22 is a unit that transmitsthe processing functions of the speech processing section 8 for samplingan analog signal, the analog to digital conversion section 9 forconverting the analog signal into a digital speech signal, the dataprocessing section 10 for calculating the human strange attractor andtransmitting the calculation result to the attractor evaluation section11 in the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1, a questioning section 24 forreceiving a question with respect to the subject from the data receptionand distribution section 23 via the network 7 to provide it to thesubject via the display section 12, and the display section 12 forreceiving the question and the evaluation result from the psychosomaticdiagnosis system 1 and displaying these by using a numerical value, agraph or the like, as the applet from the psychosomatic diagnosis system1 to the subject's terminal 6 via the network 7.

The attractor evaluation section 11 is a unit that stores the humanstrange attractor received via the data reception and distributionsection 23 (described below) in the index database 4, performquantitative evaluation based on the received human strange attractorand the past human strange attractor of the subject or another subject,and distributes the evaluation result via the data reception anddistribution section 23.

The data reception and distribution section 23 is a unit that receivesthe human strange attractor from the subject's terminal 6 to input it tothe attractor evaluation section 11, and distributes the evaluationresult obtained in the attractor evaluation section 11 to the subject'sterminal 6 via the network 7. Further, the data reception anddistribution section 23 transmits questions and the like supplied fromthe question supply section 3 to the subject.

The question supply section 3 is a unit that extracts the informationrelating to the subject from the subject database 5, and transmits atleast one question with respect to the relevant subject via the datareception and distribution section 23.

The questioning section 24 is a unit that allows the display section 12to display the question transmitted from the data reception anddistribution section 23 via the network 7 to thereby ask the question tothe subject. The subject answers the question by voice.

One example of the process flow will be described below. The subject whodesires to evaluate his/her psychosomatic condition accesses thepsychosomatic diagnosis system 1 from the browser on the subject'sterminal 6 via the network 7, and receives the applet from theprocessing function distribution section 22 in the psychosomaticdiagnosis system 1.

The question supply section 3 in the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1creates at least one question based on the information relating to thesubject stored in the subject database 5, and transmits the question tothe subject's terminal 6 via the data reception and distribution section23.

When the questioning section 6[24] in the subject's terminal 6 receivesthe question, the questioning section 6[24] displays the question viathe display section 12, and asks the question to the subject. Thesubject having received this question inputs the response by voice.

The speech processing section 8 having received the voice input via themicrophone or the like performs proper adjustment of the sampling periodand adjustment of the signal amplification level with respect to thespeech signal, and inputs the speech signal to the analog to digitalconversion section 9.

The analog to digital conversion section 9 converts the speech signalsampled by the speech processing section 8 into a digital speech signal,and inputs the digital speech signal to the data processing section 10.The data processing section 10 having received the digital speech signalanalyzes the time series data in the digital speech signal, using amethod according to the chaos theory, to calculate the human strangeattractor.

The data processing section 10 transmits the calculated human strangeattractor to the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1 via the network 7.Upon reception of the human strange attractor, the data reception anddistribution section 23 in the psychosomatic diagnosis system 1 inputsthe human strange attractor to the attractor evaluation section 11.

The attractor evaluation section 11 stores the human strange attractorin the index database 4, compares the received human strange attractorwith the past human strange attractor of the subject or another subject,to perform quantitative evaluation such as change detection orstatistical analysis, and distributes the evaluation result to thesubject's terminal 6 via the data reception and distribution section 23.

Upon reception of the evaluation result, the display section 12 in thesubject's terminal 6 displays the evaluation result with respect to thesubject via the browser, by using a numerical value, a graph or thelike. Whereby, the subject can understand the objective evaluation ofthe psychosomatic condition of himself/herself.

The respective units and database in the present invention are onlylogically divided by function, and may form the same area physically orvirtually.

Needless to say, at the time of executing the present invention, arecording medium, on which the program of the software for realizing thefunctions in the embodiment is recorded, is supplied to the system, andthe computer in the system reads out and executes the program stored onthe recording medium to realize the present invention.

In this case, the program itself read out from the recording mediumrealizes the functions in the embodiment, and hence, the recordingmedium storing the program naturally constitutes the present invention.

As the recording medium for supplying the program, for example, a floppydisk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, anon-volatile memory card and the like can be used.

Needless to say, the functions in the embodiment are realized not onlyby the computer which executes the read program, but also by theoperating system operating on the computer which performs a part of orall of the actual processing based on the instruction of the program.

Moreover, after the program read from the recording medium is written ona non-volatile or volatile storage means provided in a functionenhancement board inserted in the computer or a function enhancementunit connected to the computer, the function enhancement board or aprocessor equipped in the function enhancement unit may perform a partof or all of the actual processing based on the instruction of theprogram, to thereby realize the functions in the embodiment.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

According to the present invention, the psychosomatic condition of thesubject can be objectively determined based on the voice of the subjectwith respect to a question and the like, by eliminating the subjectivityof the diagnosing person. The question and the like can be appropriatelyprovided based on the information of the subject stored in advance, andhence the diagnosing person does not have to have abundant experiencesas before.

Further in the present invention, not only the voice of the subject withrespect to the questions by the diagnosing person is obtained, but alsoit is possible to place the subject in the situation desired by thediagnosing person (that is, to give the subject a virtual sense ofreality to intentionally change the situation of the subject). As aresult, the psychosomatic condition of the subject can be evaluated moreaccurately than the simple evaluation based on the voice.

Furthermore, by distributing these functions via the network, even asubject in a remote area can obtain objective evaluation of thepsychosomatic condition without requiring the diagnosing person.

1. A psychosomatic diagnosis system for diagnosing the psychosomaticcondition by voice uttered by a person to be diagnosed psychosomaticallywith respect to questions, comprising: an index database in whichevaluation results and information for identifying the person to bediagnosed are stored in association with each other; a speech processingsection that obtains voice uttered by the person to be diagnosed withrespect to the questions as a speech signal; an analog to digitalconversion section that converts the speech signal to a digital speechsignal by digitization; a data processing section that calculates ahuman strange attractor from the digital speech signal by using thechaos theory, and stores the calculated human strange attractor in theindex database; an attractor evaluation section that performsquantitative evaluation based on the calculated human strange attractorand the past human strange attractor of the person to be diagnosed oranother person to be diagnosed stored in the index database; and adisplay section that displays the evaluation result.
 2. A psychosomaticdiagnosis system according to claim 1, comprising: subject database forstoring information of the person to be diagnosed; and a question supplysection that supplies at least one question to a diagnosing person,based on the information of the person to be diagnosed stored in thesubject database.
 3. A psychosomatic diagnosis system according toeither one of claims 1 and 2, having a visual simulation display sectionthat gives an effect of visual simulation and/or an aural simulationspeaker section that gives an effect of aural simulation and/or atactile simulation operation section that gives an effect of tactilesimulation, with respect to the person to be diagnosed.
 4. Apsychosomatic diagnosis system according to claim 1, wherein the speechprocessing section has a preamplifier that performs preprocessing of thespeech signal before conversion of the speech signal into a digitalspeech signal in the analog to digital conversion section, and an audiofilter.
 5. A psychosomatic diagnosis system for diagnosing thepsychosomatic condition by voice uttered by a person to be diagnosedpsychosomatically with respect to questions, comprising: an indexdatabase in which evaluation results and information for identifying theperson to be diagnosed are stored in association with each other; aspeech processing section that obtains voice of the person to bediagnosed with respect to the questions stored on a recording medium asa speech signal; an analog to digital conversion section that obtainsthe speech recorded on the recording medium as a speech signal, orconverts the speech signal obtained in the speech processing section toa digital speech signal by digitization; a data processing section thatcalculates a human strange attractor from the digital speech signalrecorded on the recording medium or received from the analog to digitalconversion section, by using the chaos theory, and stores the calculatedhuman strange attractor in the index database; an attractor evaluationsection that gives a quantitative evaluation based on the calculatedhuman strange attractor and the past human strange attractor of theperson to be diagnosed or another person to be diagnosed stored in theindex database; and a display section that displays the evaluationresult, wherein when the speech signal is an analog speech signal, thespeech signal is received by the speech processing section or the analogto digital conversion section, and when the speech signal is a digitalspeech signal, the digital speech signal is received by the dataprocessing section.
 6. A psychosomatic diagnosis system for diagnosingthe psychosomatic condition by voice uttered by a person to be diagnosedpsychosomatically with respect to questions, comprising: an indexdatabase in which evaluation results and information for identifying theperson to be diagnosed are stored in association with each other; aspeech processing section that obtains voice of the person to bediagnosed with respect to the questions as a speech signal via anetwork; an analog to digital conversion section that converts thespeech signal to a digital speech signal by digitization; a dataprocessing section that calculates a human strange attractor from thedigital speech signal by using the chaos theory, and stores thecalculated human strange attractor in the index database; an attractorevaluation section that gives a quantitative evaluation based on thecalculated human strange attractor and the past human strange attractorof the person to be diagnosed or another person to be diagnosed storedin the index database; and a display section that displays theevaluation result, wherein when the speech signal is an analog speechsignal, the speech signal is received by the speech processing sectionor the analog to digital conversion section, and when the speech signalis a digital speech signal, the digital speech signal is received by thedata processing section.
 7. A psychosomatic diagnosis system fordiagnosing the psychosomatic condition by voice uttered by a person tobe diagnosed psychosomatically with respect to questions, comprising: anindex database in which evaluation results and information foridentifying the person to be diagnosed are stored in association witheach other; a processing function distribution section that transmits toa subject's terminal held by the person to be diagnosed a speechprocessing section for obtaining the voice of the person to be diagnosedas a speech signal, an analog to digital conversion section forconverting the speech signal to a digital speech signal by digitization,a questioning section for providing the questions to the person to bediagnosed, a data processing section for calculating a human strangeattractor from the digital speech signal by using the chaos theory, andtransmitting the calculation result to the psychosomatic diagnosissystem, and a display section for receiving and displaying the questionsand the evaluation in the attractor evaluation section; an attractorevaluation section that stores the human strange attractor calculated onthe subject's terminal in the index database and gives a quantitativeevaluation based on the calculated human strange attractor and the pasthuman strange attractor of the person to be diagnosed or another personto be diagnosed stored in the index database; and a data reception anddistribution section that transmits the questions and the like to thesubject's terminal, receives the calculation result from the subject'sterminal, and transmits the evaluation result obtained in the attractorevaluation section to the subject's terminal.
 8. A psychosomaticdiagnosis system according to any one of claims 5 to 7, comprising: asubject database for storing the information relating to the person tobe diagnosed; and a question supply section that supplies at least onequestion to a diagnosing person, based on the information of the personto be diagnosed, stored in the subject database.